A conversation by telephone
by planet p
Summary: AU; Jarod and Miss Parker share a conversation by telephone.
1. Chapter 1

"You're joking!"

"Oh, yes, I'd have to be joking to suggest such a thing, wouldn't I?"

"I don't like it; it sounds, to me, of a highly sceptical nature."

"If you don't like it, why didn't you shack up with her then?"

"It's not like that. We're not like that. I couldn't even tell you if she's a natural blonde, or not?"

"Yes you could!"

"Well, maybe _that_ I could. But, trust me, I've seen nothing that you haven't."

"Trust _you_! You're asking _me_ to trust _you_, but you won't even trust me over something as trivial as Cleary's latest grab for attention! I'm afraid that's not how it works, Pez man! Out in the real world, trust is mutual."

"There is no 'in' and 'out.' The world is the world, however small or large a scale you look at it from; it's always real, and believe me, in the _real_ world, trust is anything _but_ mutual! I digress to rephrase – it is anything but _consenting_! Consensus lies in disclosure, and when you're being lied at and fed misinformation at every turn, then you can hardly make an informed decision as to who, or who _not_, to trust. You cannot be construed as 'consenting' as you're in no fit position of knowledge, if you will. You can try that one on me all you like, Miss Parker, my position on this will not change."

"You can't know everything beforehand, Jarod!"

"Then-"

"Then nothing! You can't be held accountable for your actions, is that seriously your byline? That's rubbish!"

"Accountability, in such a case, would have to be determined by degrees, on a case-by-case basis, to be fair."

"The world isn't fair! God, Jarod! Get it in your head! When has it ever been?"

"I believe-"

"You 'believe'! You don't believe! You Pretend!"

"That was actually quite hurtful, Miss Parker. Have you been brushing up your skills on poor, dear Mr. Broots?"

"'Poor, dear Mr. Broots'! As though he's not an adult?!"

"What is an adult, Miss Parker? What is it to be an adult? Is it merely an age designation? A signifier of our body's physical maturity? Have we merely crossed an invisible point or boundary into which, when we enter this new territory, we will now be called adults? What does adulthood have to do with emotional or spiritual maturity? With tolerance? With our ability to make the 'right' choices and say _No_ to the 'wrong' choices? Are there 'right' and 'wrong' choices? Or is the concept of 'right' and 'wrong' merely an artificial construct put in place as a mechanism of control, by whomever feels themselves as 'leader' of the society in which we live in today?"

"What has the _big_ debate over 'right' and 'wrong' have to do with Cleary's pregnancy?!"

"Probably nothing."

"Then get off your soapbox and quit doing my head in!"

"You wouldn't make a very good psychologist, you know," Jarod replied, before promptly hanging up.

"As if I'd want to…" Miss Parker muttered to herself.

* * *

**A conversation by telephone** by planet p

**Disclaimer** I don't own _the Pretender_ or any of its characters.


	2. Chapter 2

"I don't see how tolerance comes into it!"

"No?"

"No! If you _know_ you're right, and someone has done the wrong thing, then there's no room for tolerance, there's no room for indecision! You treat one as you would all!"

"How do you know you're right?"

"That's what I believe! I believe I'm right! My belief system is such that-"

"Is it yours? Or have you 'adopted' it? How is it yours?"

"It doesn't matter!"

"Oh, it matters very much! But, by all means, go on. You were saying about how you would treat one as you would all? Is this realistic, to your mind?"

"It needs to be! No! Probably not. But it needs to be!"

"Why?"

"For…"

"Say it."

"Say what!"

"Control. It always comes back to control. You try to exert control in favour of your system of belief; to be content, to feel assured, safe, in your world, you have to be in control! Dominant! You must tell all of those others who believe differently to you that you are right, and they are not! That only _you_ are right! Your way is better, of course! Of course it is!"

"But?"

"But… we are born like any other animal is born; we come into life, we are alive. We are a part of life, a part of all life. At this point, do we have beliefs? Do we know right from wrong? Who knows? But we do know, we do know that we're a part of something, something bigger than ourselves, bigger still than mom and dad, and we know that our interactions, on however small or large a scale, impact on everything around us. Do you see? And then. Then comes these other things, all layered on top, and someone says, _See, that's what really counts, not any of these other things, not this thing that we are all a part of, just you and yours. You shouldn't have to think about the all; no-one should! It's too much!_ But we all do!"

"I don't get you."

"Spirituality is clearly the wrong word. Too many connotations."

"And how does this go hand-in-hand with tolerance?!"

"Openness. There, I again employed a poorly fit terminology. Openness, rather than tolerance."

"Which is not leniency?"

"Not at all. Leniency implies a preoccupation with punishment, which implies wrongdoing, which implies forgiveness or… punishment."

"So we shouldn't punish people who do the wrong thing?"

"No. No, that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying, in an ideal world, which, before you jump on me, I know is nothing more than a fantasy, but, in an ideal world, one would have to ask, _Why do people do the wrong thing?_"

"Yes, we do."

"No, by really why?"

"What do you mean?"

"Underneath all of it; underneath religion, underneath rugby or football, underneath fad diets or the colour of your skin!"

"Underneath that? Nobody wants to look under there! It's scary, and we're all scared we'd have no lives underneath all of that! Oh, but the guilt will kill you!"

"Does that ever strike you as…"

"Sad?"

"Wrong?"

"Aplenty."

"But no. Not one as you would all. You'd need your leaders. You wouldn't treat them as you would all, you'd risk destabilising the whole system. The ones with the _real_ power, that power would mean something, would have the ability to bend you."

"I suppose you."

"…"

"Should we have tolerance for them? Do we say, _No, look, we get it_, or do we say, _Hey, guys, enough is enough, yeah?_"

"I don't know."

"We couldn't, could we? But, if we could, would we?"

"I don't know."

"And therein lies the great sadness of it; the greatest sadness of all, the greatest injustice of all, is what we would do to survive, and to survive on our own terms, to as much an extent as we, who are not the holders of the power, can."

"Mmm…"

"Do you think you'll ever say, _Enough is enough_? What happens then? Do you stop leaving clues? Do you shut us down? Do you get _your_ happily ever after, at the expense of ours? At the expense of people like Raines's?"

"Maybe. Maybe not. I'm not sure he would truly know what it was to be happy? Must we be happy to survive?"

"It's nice to be happy once in a while."

"Is it a necessity? If we are not _unhappy_, must we therefore be _happy_?"

"No idea. And would you? Would you know what happiness is anymore than Raines, or someone like him?"

"I can't say I've had much experience there, you're right."

"But where does that come from? Happiness? How do we know if we're happy? Is it a feeling, or is it something we know because of a), b) and c) which all adds up to 100 out of 100, or something of that nature?"

"Just because I say you, or someone else, has done the wrong thing doesn't mean I don't include myself in that number. We, as humans, have done so many, many foolish things; nasty, self-occupied things."

"Mmm-hmm."

"We need to…"

"Do them differently now? Keep the good stuff, turf out the rest. But it won't happen?"

"It won't happen, no."

"But you'll always still be one of us, the big, bad (stupid) humans, and you'll always still ring me up at ungodly hours to talk about whatever?"

"Yeah, probably."

"Let's just say it's not such a bad thing to hold a glimmer of hope. Hope there's someone else out there who thinks like we think, silly humans, stumbling all over themselves as though it's a race, and it is a race, but it isn't, not really, only because that's the only way they can see it. But let's just hope, for a moment, that we're not the only ones who can say, just for a while, _Let's give the race a rest, yeah, and hope we haven't been trampled by the others on their merry way._"

"Ouch."

"I get the tree first!"

"Yep."

"…"

"What's a soapbox?"

"A box for soap, a box that people put soap in; a whole heap of soap. To get up on your soapbox is a saying, like getting on the bandwagon, but the soapbox is singular in its implication, your soapbox, your beliefs, you're parroting them over and over again, like you always do. The bandwagon is something someone else, or a large number of someone elses (the larger number out of a group) parrot, and then you're just getting on the bandwagon, going along with the rest."

"And any self-respecting self-preservation jumps up on the bandwagon?"

"Exactly."

"Oh, um, apparently she's married."

"You're kidding!"

"Absolutely not kidding!"

"That's ridiculous!"

"Hmm…"

"God! Quickly, tell me it wasn't her producer!"

"She's not telling."

"Eww!"


End file.
